ABSTRACT
Trading and gift-exchange and the emergence of currency can be seen in the kula system of the Massim, who spread over the south-eastern end of New Guinea and the island groups farther to the east. Somewhere in between the insignificant giving of presents and recognized money transactions there are two customs of world-wide, though sporadic distribution, 'silent trade' and 'gift-exchange'. Silent trade does not exclude the use of money, although from its distribution it appears to be mainly confined to the hunting and collecting peoples, who, having little or no barterable property of their own, have no organization for exchange. The objects that are the nearest approach to money-substitutes may be seen to have acquired their functions by their use, not in barter, but in social ceremony. There is source of conventional present-giving which has its share in the early history of money, where the giving is all on one side, from a chief or headman to his followers.
